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How to spend the surplus? Town offers checks, considers paying residents' county, fire taxes too

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LeBrun Nissan on Route 5 in Sennett is one of several businesses to open recently that have driven up the town's assessments and its sales tax revenue. Sennett now has a surplus and, if the governor approves, will soon send $100 checks to property owners.
(David Lassman | dlassman@syracuse.com)

The board may consider using next year's surplus to offset the taxes Sennett property owners pay to Cayuga County or the fire district, said town Supervisor Jeff Herrick.

"We're in great shape," Herrick said.

Both houses of the state legislature have approved Sennett's request to give money back to its property owners.The bill must be signed by the governor before the town can begin giving out checks.

Sennett is only the second New York town to give money back to its property owners, according to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. In 2007, Clifton Park in Saratoga County became the first.

Sennett's largesse is driven by rising assessments and declining town costs.

Town taxable properties have grown by more than 34 percent in six years, to $308 million in 2013 from $228 million in 2007, according to the Cayuga County Office of Real Property Services.

Assessments rose as the town added new homes at the rate of 12 to 14 a year, and as new businesses, such as Panera Bread and LeBrun Nissan, opened along Route 5 east of Auburn, Herrick said.

Growing businesses, such as Panera Bread, have boosted assessments and revenue in Sennett. The town has a surplus and is planning to send $100 checks to property owners.David Lassman | dlassman@syracuse.com

That's important because the county divides sales tax revenue based on assessments. So as Sennett's total assessments increased, so did the amount it received in sales tax.

The county's total sales tax revenue grew by a little more than 8 percent from $30.3 million in 2007 to $33 million in 2012. Sennett's portion of the revenue grew by 16 percent over the same five year period from $984,904 to $1.1 million, according to the county's Deputy Treasurer Paul Padlick.

Even as the amount of money flowing into Sennett's coffers increased, town officials cut expenses. The board eliminated the $75,000 -a-year code enforcement position and replaced it with a service paid by the hour, Herrick said.The $52,000 bookkeeper was replaced by one who is paid $20,000, and two town attorneys who cost $40,000 a year were replaced by one at a cost of $1,200 a month, he said.

Sennett continues to charge fees for water, sewer and building permits, even though it eliminated town property taxes three years ago. Still the town had more money than it needed to operate. So Sennett, used the additional money to set up reserve funds for the highway and other departments, Herrick said.

The money continued to roll in.

A year ago, Herrick met the lawyers who drew up the legislation that allowed Clifton Park to give tax rebates to its residents at a town officials meeting. That's when the Sennett board decided to set aside more than $100,000 from last year's budget to send property owners $100 rebate checks.

The town's on track to have another surplus at the end of this year, the supervisor said. The question facing the town board is what to do with the extra money: send a check, or pay a portion of everyone's county or fire district taxes.

Contact Charley Hannagan by voice of text at 315-470-2161, via email at channagan@syracuse,com, on Facebook at Neighbors West or on Twitter @charleypost.